Mice in the Winter: A Warriors FanFic
by Starlit Dusk
Summary: Lilypaw is always the last in everything: she is small, taken advantage of, and never gets what she really wants: Friendship, love: oh, and mice too. In this story, Lilypaw takes on a apprentice challenge. Will her true bravery shine through?


**Mice in the Winter**

**Lilypaw was always the last cat to get anything. Her brown pelt, eyes, and ears weren't special. She always had the smallest shrew, the last pick of nest, and worst of all, never got a mouse. Lilypaw loved mice. She loved them more than anything StarClan could throw at her. But the problem was, being a runt of her litter, she only had one once in a blue moon. They were always taken before she could get to one. But she was determined to change that.**

**One day, around noonhigh, Bluestar gathered around the apprentices and told them that they would have an assesment today. Lilypaw groaned. She was the worst at these things! All of the other apprentices always were faster, stronger, and got the best prey, she thought. Bluestar heard her groan and gave her a hard look.**

"**Whats wrong?" Bluestar inquired.**

**Lilypaw looked at her paws. "Nothing."**

"**Good. Now the apprentice that comes back to me with the juiciest, largest, most appealing piece of prey will become a warrior right then and there. Your mentors have told me you are all ready, but this test will see which of you is the most ready."**

**Lilypaw stood there, her jaws agape. It was the middle of leaf-bare! The warriors had trouble finding anything, and now they wanted the apprentices to try? Did Bluestar have bees in her brain? And worse yet, she was facing the other apprentices who where so much more skilled than she was. She would never win this.**

**Lilypaw dragged herself out through the thorn barrier, and watched her fellow apprentices race off into the big woods. Barkpaw and Shinepaw seemed to be trying to outrace each other to the sunningrocks. Lilypaw rolled her eyes. They would never catch any prey making a racket as loud as that! And then she silently ran the opposite way as everyone else. She looked around for the best spot to go off to. On her right were the think woods, filled with shrews and squirrels. To her left was snakerocks, and the thunderpath, the direction Blackpaw had just ran off too. She decided to go the completly other way, toward the sprawling treecut place, where the pines are always grenen. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something so I am not looking like a complete mouse-brain in front of the clan!**

**On this leafbare day, the sun was shining abnormally brightly. The rays gave the fallen snow a sparkling look, as if the ground was littered with stars. The stars continued on to the trees, and Lilypaw gazed in wonder at the sparkling pines, wondering which one would hold her prize. Lilypaw had been trotting for a while now, until she spotted a promising tree.**

**She sniffed around it, looking for a scent of a squirrel, or maybe a shrew. But what she did smell made her head spin with joy. A mouse. Here. Lilypaw started drooling, and followed the scent. Mouse! She hadn't had a mouse in moons! Fox dung head Barkpaw would sprint to the pile first, grab it, and wave it over her head. Just the thought of eating such a wondrous creature spurred her on.**

**She heard it first. It was scrabbling about under the foliage of a spruce tree. Lilypaw's heart took off. A real live mouse! And it is all mine!**

**She dropped into a hunters crouch, and being careful so the mouse wouldn't hear her, smell her, or see her, crept up to it and pounced. And… yes! She had it between her paws! She bit its neck to end its suffering. The sweet aroma of the juicy mouse crept up her nose. She sighed happily and was ready to take a big bite when she remembered the contest.**

**If I eat the mouse now, I may not find another piece of prey to bring back. but on the other paw… the scent was beginning to overpower her. She was about to give in when she heard Barkpaw and Shinepaw running through the foliage toward her. She didn't have time to do anything but stare as the two other apprentices came crashing through the trees.**

"**I can't find anything at all!" complained Shinepaw as she came into view.**

"**We will find something Shinep-" and he noticed Lilypaw. "Hey look here! The runt has found herself a mouse!"**

"**It's huge!" gasped Shinepaw.**

**Lilypaw looked at her mouse in a different light. First it was just food. Now it was the winning catch. And Shinepaw was right. It was the biggest mouse Lilypaw had ever seen. It was even bigger than most squirrels brought in!**

"**Thanks Shinepaw!" mewed Lilypaw. She had finally done well in something.**

**Barkpaw didn't look too happy. "Lilypaw, you can't win."**

**Lilypaw was shocked. "Look at my mouse! I can try to at least."**

**Barkpaw sneered. "I mean, you won't. You got lucky is all. A mouse brain runt like you doesn't deserve to be a warrior before me. Now give me the mouse so I won't hurt you. I am going to win this contest." He padded forward, his teeth set in a threatening growl.**

**Lilypaw took a deep breath. "No," she said, " I won. And StarClan shall know I did. I am keeping this mouse, and you won't take it!"**

**Barkpaw growled. "Have it your way then," and leaped at her.**

**Lilypaw had never been much of a fighter, but she had a mouse on the line. She dodged, and leaped at him, her claws outstretched. She batted him on the muzzle, and blood specks flew. Barkpaw scratched at her shoulder, and she whirled at him into a big ball of fur and claws.**

**Lilypaw fought as hard as she could, but it was not enough. The stronger apprentice had the upper hand. Barkpaw was on top of her. He had won.**

"**Quit your flailing. I won. Now I get the mouse." And he went in for a nip on the nose.**

**Now Lilypaw's mentor had told her of a move the great Firestar had used in this situation. "It will make your enemy think they have won, and then you can kick out and beat them!" It was her only chance. Lilypaw went limp.**

**Barkpaw stopped half a mouse length from her nose. "You know when you are beaten, at least, he said, and began to yowl his victory.**

**He stopped mid howl, for Lilypaw had kicked so ferociously that he had gone flying three fox lengths, hit a tree with the flat of his back, and collapsed, knocked out. A plume of sparkling snow rained down upon him.**

"**That was for my mouse." She meowed.**

**Shinepaw took one look at her, and ran with her tail between her legs toward camp.**

**Lilypaw picked up her mouse and victoriously padded back the way Shinepaw had ran.**

**When she went through the thorn barrier, Bluestar was waiting for her, Blackpaw sitting next to her. The clan leader had a stern look on her face.**

"**Shinepaw has told me all about it." Bluestar's face broke into a smile. "You have done wonderfully. Barkpaw will be punished. But next time, try not to kick him so hard, his mother is distraught."**

**Lilypaw turned and saw Barkpaw, supported by his mother and Windsong, stumble into the medicine den, but not before Barkpaw's mother gave Lilypaw a sour look.**

**Lilypaw flicked her tail, and turned back to Bluestar.**

"**Well, you won. Blackpaw's shrew was tinier than a beetle!" The apprentice next to her rolled his eyes. Bluestar murrowed out a laugh, and then turned back to being serious. "You have earned the right of warrior." Lilypaw felt another rush of cool adrenaline pump through her young body.**

"**Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the highrock for a meeting!"**

**The clan gathered for her warrior ceremony.**

"**The winner of the competition has the right to become a warrior. Do you, Lilypaw, promise to uphold the warrior code, and protect your clan and your clanmates, even at the cost of your life?"**

**Even as she said this, there were murmurs of disbelief in the audience.**

"**She cheated!" whispered Raintail.**

"**She has never caught anything in her life!"**

"**Ssh!" hissed Shinepaw, and gave Lilypaw a smile.**

**Lilypaw smiled back. Maybe she would make a new friend. "I do." said Lilypaw confidentially.**

"**Then by the power from StarClan vested in me, I give you your warrior name, Lilyclaw, for your kind nature but strong claw."**

"**Lilyclaw! Lilyclaw!"**

**Lilyclaw's new denmates crowded around her, chanting her name, and asking her to tell the story of the fight with Barkpaw. Even among the warriors, he was notorious for being rude and unkind.**

"**Did you really kick him against a tree?" mewed Roottail.**

"**Yeah, I saw it! She was amazing!" said Shinepaw. "Oh, and I'm... I'm sorry about Barkpaw."**

**Lilypaw flicked her tail over her new friends muzzle. "Thats okay. I kicked his sorry mouse butt..."**

"**On a tree!" laughed Shinepaw.**

**How big was the mouse really?" inquired Softheart.**

"**Cats!" Mewed Bluestar loudly, "Let her go to her vigil.**

**Lilyclaw smiled and padded over to the camp entrance, but her rumbling stomach resulted in Bluestar calling her back to her.**

"**I forgot the second part of your prize," mewed Bluestar.**

"**Well, you get to eat the mouse!"**

**Lilyclaw's eyes lit up, and as she dug in to her wonderfully juicy mouse, she knew this was the beginning of better, brighter, juicer days ahead.**


End file.
